Thermo-Chemical Analysis of Biomass Gasification by Gibbs Free Energy Minimization Model-Part: II (Optimization of Biomass Feed and Steam to Biomass Ratio)

Thermo-chemical gasification of biomass with steam is an effective way for yielding higher hydrogen concentration and better lower heating value (LHV) of the producer gas. But the major limiting factor for steam gasification is the energy requirement for steam production. Biomass feed necessitates adequate amount of steam for achieving better hydrogen yield in gasification. Thus, the estimation of optimum values of steam to biomass mass ratio (SBR) and biomass feed is necessary such that these variables maximize the hydrogen concentration, LHV, and energy efficiency. This article presents a thermodynamic equilibrium model based on minimization of Gibbs free energy with gases obeying Redlich--Kwong (R--K) real gas equation of state. The objective is to arrive at a global optimum point for steam gasification of biomass in terms of SBR and biomass feed. Simulations are carried out in MATLAB® with simulated annealing (SA) algorithm for achieving the global minima. The parametric variations are studied by varying SBR, biomass feed, and both in order to get the concentration of gases, LHV, and efficiencies of the resulting mixture, for arriving at the optimum utilization of biomass and gasifying agent. In addition, variations in cold gas efficiency, hydrogen gasification efficiency and total gas yield are also investigated. The simulated results are validated with existing experimental and model results. For maximum specific LHV, energy performance, and hydrogen concentration, the global optimum value arrived for SBR is 0.8 per unit mass of biomass gasified. Sensitivity analysis is conducted for the model to investigate the effect of variables on the optimized process.

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